Cutting through the mix??

I have recently faced a big problem. My guitarist just got a 120watt Mashall combo for his birthday. As all of you know, Marshall sometime has more low end sound. The bass sound is suffered as the results. So sometime I can't really hear myself with my Fender bassman. If there any way, beside changing the bass, would help me cut through the mix?

I had the same problem with my last band, except I was fighting 2 of them. I eventually upgraded my amp. GK1001RB II. Beat the crap out of the marshalls. Then I quit the band! How much power is your current amp running?

One way of cutting through the mix is to up the mids. It may sound like clap when playing alone, but will find the more open frequencies in the whole mix. But I think your problem is not enough power. You could always ask the guitar player to turn down, but we all know that they have an obligation to the world to be as loud as possible, no matter the situation. I think I heard somewhere (probably on TalkBass) that it takes 3x the watts on bass to produce the same sound levels as guitar. Maybe a nice 350 watt amp would do the trick? Also, how many speakers are you running with the 100W? 1x15? maybe add another 2x10 or something. Welcome to the world of GAS!

I have recently faced a big problem. My guitarist just got a 120watt Mashall combo for his birthday. As all of you know, Marshall sometime has more low end sound. The bass sound is suffered as the results. So sometime I can't really hear myself with my Fender bassman. If there any way, beside changing the bass, would help me cut through the mix?

Cheers,

Joe

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If your guitarist has more wattage than you do, then as a bass player, you're in a pretty bad situation. The Fender Bassman is a great guitar head but a pretty poor bass amp. I'd recommend you run ten times the wattage of your guitarist. Overkill? Not really. An amp on "2" tends to sound a lot better than one on "10" (at least to my ears)... more room for dynamics and loud transients. I run 1800 watts and frankly, I am the master of the universe when it comes to stage volume in my band. I'm a benevolent ruler though, because volume wars benefit no one.

IMO, a band has to be committed to the best overall sound of the BAND - not each instrument. To do this, you need to leave space in the sonic spectrum for each other. Let the guitar have mids and highs and leave the lows and low mids for you and the Kick.

I've been fighting this battle for a while with one guitarist and have never gained ground, because he thinks that it's more important for his guitar to sound good when soloed and can't or won't grasp the concept of the band sounding good. So he cranks the bass and the low end is just muddy.

However, when I put 1200 watts through the Mesa 2x15 cab, I was IN CHARGE!!

We all know the problem. Guitar player says "this is a tube amp...I need to crank it a little to get my tone"

Best thing is to do what ever one has said:

1) you need more power than the guitar players do

2) boost mids or other eq frequencies to cut. Try playing a song with the band and adjust eq during the song (warn them you are doing this so they don't think you lost your mind). Find your "sonic space"

Correctamundo! Guitarists have a tendancy to use way too much bass in their tone. What happens is you start to share frequencies and this equals MUDD. Your combo worked before so he must be getting too excited and turning up too much too. There is no reason to blow out the mix for practice new rig or not. It's like if you had a 1000 watt bass rig and turned your highs all the way up, you woundn't do that so why is he stepping on your toes?